Ninth Street Courts
At a public launch in Spring 2024, My HomeCourt and Providence College Galleries [PCG], in collaboration with Providence Parks, will unveil newly refurbished and designed sports courts at the Ninth Street Courts in Providence’s Mount Hope neighborhood. The renovated basketball and tennis courts, along with new pickleball lines, will feature a court mural designed by the nationally renowned artist Sanford Biggers.
Due to unpredictable weather, cold temperatures, and heavy rain, the official court opening and community celebration has been postponed until spring 2024.
The basketball court has been completed, including the mural and new backboards both designed by the artist. The tennis/pickleball court mural will be completed in the spring. All courts are currently usable and open to the public.
The Design
Over the last two decades, Sanford Biggers (b.1970) has developed a singular body of work deeply informed by American history and traditions, and their intersection with urban culture, sacred geometry, and abstracted symbolism. Biggers’ famous Codex series—mixed-media paintings and sculptures done directly on or made from pre-1900 antique quilts—draws from the long-debated narrative that during the 19th century, quilts doubled as signposts along escape routes of the Underground Railroad. Although the artist’s work begins with textiles more than a century old, their unusual yet exuberant color palettes and graphic compositions convey an urban pop sensibility that is distinctly contemporary.
Biggers’ mural design for the Ninth Street courts will build upon his past textile artworks and take inspiration from the unique cultural histories of the neighborhood’s past and present communities.
My HomeCourt 2023: Sanford Biggers is curated by Jamilee Lacy, Executive Director of the Frye Art Museum and Former Director/Chief Curator of Providence College Galleries.
